Fixed tariffs and prices hikes/ ways to cut energy bills.

fulhamnonny

I live in a rented flat with no double glazing and with storage heaters.
The windows during the winter are terrible at keeping the heat in and we end up with a condensation problem. We have a catch 22 situation where we need the heat on to keep ourselves warm, but have to open the window to get rid of the condensation. The flat is electricity only.

1. How can we combat the the condensation so we keep the heat loss/ energy bills down.

2. Again how do we keep the bills down using storage heaters,

Onto my main point. With the current energy price hikes our energy supplier has told us that we will see our prices rise. We are currently on a fixed rate until Jan 2012. They have given us the details of what our energy will increase to, and have said we can leave if we want or accept the hike.
Can the energy company still increase our prices even though we are on a fixed rate for another 4 months? I thought the whole point of a fixed tariff is to initially miss this sort of thing from happening.

All advice welcomed.

Thanks

HappyMJ

fulhamnonny wrote: »

I live in a rented flat with no double glazing and with storage heaters.
The windows during the winter are terrible at keeping the heat in and we end up with a condensation problem. We have a catch 22 situation where we need the heat on to keep ourselves warm, but have to open the window to get rid of the condensation. The flat is electricity only.

1. How can we combat the the condensation so we keep the heat loss/ energy bills down.

2. Again how do we keep the bills down using storage heaters,

Onto my main point. With the current energy price hikes our energy supplier has told us that we will see our prices rise. We are currently on a fixed rate until Jan 2012. They have given us the details of what our energy will increase to, and have said we can leave if we want or accept the hike.
Can the energy company still increase our prices even though we are on a fixed rate for another 4 months? I thought the whole point of a fixed tariff is to initially miss this sort of thing from happening.

All advice welcomed.

Thanks

1. Use dehumidifiers to reduce condensation.

2. Use more jumpers/layers and use the heating less. Make sure you are using the heaters correctly. Set the input and output controls correctly every night. Output should always be set to the lowest setting then turned up to max when you are in the room then down to minimum when you go out or to bed. Input depends on the weather forecast.

Fixed tariff will be fixed until the end of the term. Read the details of the tariff you are on to see what they can do.

Ultrasonic

HappyMJ wrote: »

1. Use dehumidifiers to reduce condensation.

Isn't a dehumidifier likely to use quite a lot of electricity itself?

I'd have thought the cheapest options would either be to just mop the condensation up with a cloth, or to open windows just for a short period each day.

Plushchris

Make sure any vents you have around windows etc. are open, we lived in a flat a while back that had a problem with condensation, it turned out some bright spark (probably the landlord) had fitted blinds over the air vents (which were in the shut position) as soon as I noticed this I took the blinds down and put normal curtains up, opened the vents and condensation problems got a lot better.

HappyMJ

Ultrasonic wrote: »

Isn't a dehumidifier likely to use quite a lot of electricity itself?

I'd have thought the cheapest options would either be to just mop the condensation up with a cloth, or to open windows just for a short period each day.

Not really. Just run them at E7 rates for 7 hours at night lets say one is rated at 300W and the night rate is 4p per unit it will cost 8 pence per night or about £15 for 6 months of the year. Of course what you said is correct too. I'd add do not dry any clothes inside, when ironing do it with the window wide open, when cooking, bathing or showering also open the window and turn the extractor fan on....even though it is cold outside.

Ultrasonic

HappyMJ wrote: »

Not really. Just run them at E7 rates for 7 hours at night lets say one is rated at 300W and the night rate is 4p per unit it will cost 8 pence per night or about £15 for 6 months of the year.

If that could be done then that's rather cheaper than I'd thought actually. Altough when I've had economy 7 in the past it wasn't connected to any wall sockets, so it wouldn't have been possible to run a dehumidifier off it. E7 just had hard-wired connections to the night storage heaters and the hot water immersion heater. Maybe some homes do let you connect other electrical devices to the E7 supply though?

At a conservative daytime rate estimate of 10p per kWh the cost for your example would be £6.30 per 30 day 'month', although I guess it would only be necessary during the winter. Plus of course the cost of a dehumidifer (the cheapest one in Argos is £53.99, although I have no idea how effective it would be). Whether any improvements would be worth this outlay would obviously be a personal choice.

14Westfield

I'd try to reduce the heatloss from your windows over winter. As you've got condensation you're unlikely to be losing heat to draughts and leaky seals so would need to insulate the the panes themselves.
this can be done by adding laminate sheets over the windows which or , if you don't mind losing your view, adding bubblewrap!
i saw this on american sites and sticking a bubblewrap layer to the glass made the view opaque, but no less bright and significantly increased the insulation (one had a video of a guy using an infrared thermometer on a adjacent panes - one insulated, one not and showed 10deg or so difference between them).
I plan on trying it once the weather gets cold instead of the big additional fleecy curtain ive used for the past couple of years.

fulhamnonny

Thanks 14Westfield.

A potential 10 deg difference is huge.

By placing laminate or bubble wrap over the windows is a lot cheaper than a de-humidifier.

moose

Not heard of the bubble wrap idea before but I'd be concerned that condensation would build up between the glass and the bubble wrap. The excess moisture in the air will always form condensation on the coldest surface in the room. In your case this is the single glazed windows. If the bubble wrap idea did work, it would just be fixing the symptom and not the problem. The excess moisture problem would simply form condensation elsewhere in the room.

As others have suggested, a dehumidifier would definitely solve the problem but you would have that initial outlay. I understand your concerns on running costs but you should be aware that your heating bills should reduce as its a lot easier to heat a room without excess moisture.

Hope this helps

BTW, I work for Ebac Dehumidfiers but these are my views and opinions.

grahamc2003

moose wrote: »

Not heard of the bubble wrap idea before but I'd be concerned that condensation would build up between the glass and the bubble wrap. The excess moisture in the air will always form condensation on the coldest surface in the room. In your case this is the single glazed windows. If the bubble wrap idea did work, it would just be fixing the symptom and not the problem. The excess moisture problem would simply form condensation elsewhere in the room.

As others have suggested, a dehumidifier would definitely solve the problem but you would have that initial outlay. I understand your concerns on running costs but you should be aware that your heating bills should reduce as its a lot easier to heat a room without excess moisture.

Hope this helps

BTW, I work for Ebac Dehumidfiers but these are my views and opinions.

If you stop condensation on the windows, it doesn't necessarily mean it will form somewhere else. Condensation forms when the air temperature drops below its dew point. So for example, if the dew point at a certain time is 5C, then if nothing else in the room is at or below 5c, then there'll be no condensation, whether or not there's condensation on the windows (if the surface is below 5C) or not (due to any sort of insulation keeping the exposed surface above 5c).

As to running costs - my (Ebac) de!!!!ifier registers 250w when the compresser is working, so cheap at e7 rates (the only time I run it). Of course, the 250w also turns into heat so helps heat the house a little (in fact by 252w or similar due to the condensing water).

Dehumidifiers don't work too well at low temperatures (i.e. unheated rooms in the winter), but mine takes out a lot of water from humid rooms at 20c. We really noticed the difference when gettin up to a cool dry room compared to a cool humid room - it's much more pleasant.

If I were the op, I'd at least get some sort of temporary secondary double glazing to fit over both the window (for extra insulation) and the frame (to cut out drafts). I also run a cheap dehumidifier (£30 iirc from b&Q) which does the job with no bells and whistles, which the op could consider if he can run on e7.